2018 Holden Calais vs 2022 Cupra Ateca

What's the difference?

If Holden had a dollar for every time someone had criticised the new and international flavour of Australia’s formerly home-grown hero, it would surely have more than enough spare cash to blow the dust of that vast South Australian factory and restart local Commodore production immediately.

Hell, there’d probably be enough left over to relaunch the Camira while they were at it. And maybe even knock out a new Gemini or two.

So we’re not going to do that again here. The all-new Commodore, in this case the Calais Tourer, is now here - granted having travelled further than the one it replaces - and so we’ll be playing this review with the straightest of bats.

Because the truth is, if you peel the badging - and thus the swirling emotion - off its elongated rump, then you’ll find this German-built Tourer is, really and truly, a very good thing.

Meet the new Cupra Ateca. Actually, scratch that. Meet the new Cupra, the VW Group's Spanish performance brand that will be launching in Australia around the middle of this year.

Picture a pyramid, and then put VW at the top of it. Bottom left you've got Skoda, a brand that prides itself on practicality and clever features. Bottom right you've got Cupra, which promises to be the fun, sporty and energetic cousin, and to focus on performance, electrified or otherwise. But both are fed from Volkswagen.

Make sense?

The Ateca, then, is a nearly Tiguan-sized SUV that will launch in one hi-po trim level, and a significantly lower starting price than its better-known, R-badged relative.

It also promises to marry family duties with a fun-to-drive attitude. So how does it measure up?